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Honda Civic GX Natural-Gas Vehicle: First Drive Review

Good read, apparently the GX model for 2012 will be available for Canada, potentially on a order by order basis....
So here's the bottom line on driving a natural-gas vehicle: If you didn't have to refill it, you'd never know it was fueled on anything other than gasoline.

Except for two things, that is: First, you lose up to half of a gasoline car's range, with our natural-gas fueled Honda Civic GX only providing about 180 miles before it needs more fuel (against up to 400 miles for the gasoline Civic).

Second, you also lose about two-thirds of the trunk space offered in a standard Civic sedan, because the high-pressure natural-gas tank is located at the rear of the trunk.

Driving: indistinguishable
Other than that, natural gas may be the easiest alternative fuel to use--if there's a public fueling station nearby.

The performance is indistinguishable from the gasoline equivalent, and from behind the wheel, you'd never know it wasn't the real stuff.

If anything, we thought our GX might be a bit quieter than other Civics we've tested, but we couldn't do a side-by-side comparison to check out our impression.

Only one test car nationwide
Honda is presently the only manufacturer that sells natural-gas vehicles to the public, and at the moment, it only does so in four regional markets--Oklahoma being the latest.

We'd wanted to test a Civic GX for a while, but it took a trip to Los Angeles to make it happen, because there's only a single one in the company's nationwide media fleet.

We actually drove a 2009 model, but the 2010 and 2011 models are essentially unchanged. The Civic will be entirely redesigned for the 2012 model year, when Honda says it will make the GX natural-gas model available in all 50 states.

Pricey for a base Civic
On the window sticker, the suggested retail price for the Civic GX is listed as $18,255. Then in very tiny letters, there's a single line that says, "Incremental Cost (CNG)" and adds another $6,935, for a total price of $25,860.

Source;
http://www.greencarreports.com/review/1051854_honda-civic-gx-natural-gas-vehicle-first-drive-review

ASIMO Humanoid Receives Honor as World’s Most Advanced Humanoid Robot

Honda’s ASIMO (Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility) humanoid robot has set a new world record and has been honored as the World’s Most Advanced Humanoid Robot.

The ASIMO humanoid is part of Honda’s R&D initiatives in robotics and human mobility fields. The robot was developed at Honda's R&D Wako Fundamental Technical Research Center before ten years.

All joints of ASIMO include 34° of Freedom, enabling the robot to effectively respond to the natural human motions. It can identify various objects as well as the landscape of its environment. It can understand easy verbal instructions, identify faces and evades mobile obstacles as it moves.

The company launched several applications in the iphone and smartphone (A ‘Run with Asimo’) enabling users to communicate with a virtual ASIMO robot on their mobile.

The Honda engineers worked for ten years to develop the latest version. The robot can now walk and run on all irregular surfaces. It can even climb staircases and stretch to grab objects.

The ultimate mission of Honda’ robotics department is to enable ASIMO to help humans for performing their daily tasks and to carry out risky operations.

Source;
http://www.azorobotics.com/details.asp?newsID=902

Toyota Prius cedes Japan car market leadership to Honda Fit in Jan.

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Toyota Motor Corp.'s Prius hybrid surrendered its leadership in Japan's passenger car market in January for the first time in 20 months, with Honda Motor Co.'s subcompact Fit likely to capture the top slot, industry sources said Tuesday.

Overall vehicle sales in January, excluding minivehicles with engines of up to 660 cc, tumbled 21.5 percent from a year earlier to 187,154 units, falling for the fifth consecutive month, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said the same day.

While sales of the Prius began falling year on year after the government subsidy program to promote eco-friendly car purchases ended in September, Fit sales have been robust due to the launch in October of a hybrid model with a starting price of 1.59 million yen, the most inexpensive in Japan among vehicles powered by electric motors and gasoline.

The sales rankings do not include minicars, but the Fit is likely to have become the front-runner in January for the first time since December 2007 even if minivehicle data are included, the sources said.

In January, Fit sales totaled about 15,000 units, up around 10 percent from a year earlier, with Prius sales at some 14,000 units, down an estimated 40 percent, according to the sources.
The Prius apparently lost some of its potential buyers to Toyota's all-new, fuel-efficient Vitz subcompact, which hit the market in December.

Among best-selling minivehicles, Daihatsu Motor Co.'s Move and Tanto sold some 9,000 units each between Jan. 1 and 28, and Suzuki Motor Corp.'s WagonR about 8,000 units, according to the sources.

The official sales rankings data are due to be released by the Japan Automobile Dealers Association and the Japan Mini Vehicles Association on Friday.

In January, passenger car sales excluding minicars dived 23.8 percent from a year earlier to 167,574 units. Cargo vehicle sales climbed 7.5 percent to 18,863 units, while bus sales tumbled 25.5 percent to 717 vehicles.

Source;
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/business/news/20110201p2g00m0bu085000c.html

Temple of Vtec Find: ~200hp 2.4L For Civic Si Confirmed, R18 for other 2012 Civics

Interesting, glad to hear the Si will get the 2.4l but I'd like to see more than the 200hp, say something like 225hp or more....
As we get closer to the FMC (Full Model Change) of the 2012 Civic, we've been hearing a little bit more about the updated engine family. First of all, the K24 that we've been telling you about for nearly a year is locked in. We've known about it for a long while, and we've also understood that it will be very similar to the TSX's K24 (complete with the tuner-unfriendly cast-in exhaust manifold), but the question mark has been "how much power will it develop?". Assuming our sources are correct, the upsized engine will be rated very close in power output to the current K20Z3. We don't know the exact number but it sounds like the rating is going to be in the range of 200-205hp. Obviously, with 20% more displacement we can expect the torque output to be significantly better than what the K20 delivers; it will likely in the neighborhood of 170lb-ft, as it is with the TSX.

In other Civic engine news, we're hearing that the non-Si Civic models will march forward with the same fuel-sipping 1.8L R18 engine that was introduced with the 8th generation models. We don't currently have any information concerning potential changes to the rated output but you can bet Honda will figure out a way to squeeze more fuel efficiency from it.

The 2012 Civic will appear in showrooms in the April/May 2011 timeframe.

Source;
http://www.vtec.net/news/news-item?news_item_id=955174

UN's Report says - North Korea has built up underground Nuclear Sites

According to the UN secret report, “North Korea has almost another unknown nuclear site”.

The report has been composed on the data from US scientist Siegfried Hecker who visited an undisclosed site in November last year. Quoting unnamed reports, he told the UN’s board of professionals that he saw the centrifuges most likely came from other unseen facilities. The board’s report which has not been publicized was given to the Security Council last week.

In November, North Korean official had seemed to be showed to Mr. Hecker the fully well-designed uranium enrichment plant at the Yongbyon complex.

The UN's board of professional, which evaluates the sanctions government against Pyongyang, was ordered to prepare the report after Mr. Hecker briefed the Security Council on his visit.

The Ambassadors told that their report accomplished that centrifuges and other equipment at the Yongbyon reactor had earlier controlled from different underground places. Another diplomat told

There's no option they could have equipped the centrifuge facility between 2009 and now without there being extra hidden sites."

Mr. Hecker told the board it was improbably that the North Korea could have produced all of the utensils, told an unnamed diplomat because the report has not been yet published. He also told that it was most probably that they had brought some kind of material and assembled them in at least one unknown place, before touching them to Yongbyon.

According to seeps out from diplomats, the board’s report suggests strict sanctions including freezing accounts and travel bans on nuclear officials. Probably the report would be publicized at the end of this week.

In last December, US experts also articulated apprehension that the North Korea could have further hidden facilities after a briefing by Mr. Hecker.

Will "Hosni Mubark" tackle the Million's March?

More than 135 Egyptian protestors have been killed during clashes with the security forces. Today opposition parties called for March of millions towards President Hosni Mubarak palace, for creating troubles against the march the government has stopped the train service furthermore; the government has imposed Curfew in all the tense cities. According to the statement of Egyptian military spokesmen, the country army’s duty is to provide security to the every citizen and not fire against protestors and every person has a right to record peaceful protest. The Egyptian army respects the legitimate rights of the people. 

Today is the 8^th day of demonstrations in Egypt but despite starting the time of Curfew the people are gathered around Cairo important place Al-Tahrir square. The banks, stock exchanges, schools and colleges are completely closed down because of one week over demonstration against president Mubarak government, thereby there have been created a severe shortage of food stuffs and these commodities are far away from the approach of the citizens. 

A renowned Egyptian Film Star “Umar Shareef” has also accompanied with the people those are demanding resignation from President Mubarak. During fighting against government oppose demonstration 130 peoples have been died and at least 80 dead bodies have been shifted into the hospitals. About 36 people in Alexandra and 15 people in Suez have been killed. Due to quicker deteriorating condition, most of the tourist are facing severe problems and till today they could not leave the Airports. The Egyptian tourism industry was also severely affected by the protests. Various countries are making efforts to leave out their citizens from Egypt and US has already left out their citizen on Monday.

 According to the Arab TV from pervious night there were almost 2.5 million people at Cairo, Al-Tahrir, Liberty Square and Alexandra for participating in million March which would be held on Tuesday.